The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-06-05
LITERARY CRITICISM,
climate.

ments or by the public which they seek to in
struct. There is the critic of whom novelist
Howells complains SO bitterly in the current
Harper's Monthly-he who attacks the author
instead of his work. 1t cannotsbe denied that
Mr.. Howells has foundation for his griev-
ance. Criticism has been 1eveled at him
when his books were ostensibly the point
aimed at, and it is not surprising that per-
sonalities under these circumstances should
excite protest. 1t must be said, however, in
behalf of the offenders that this novelist's
writings have remarkable power of arousing
this take the love-making in the latest chapter
of his latest serial story. There is love-mak-
ing in fiction which the reader, young or old,
finds secret or confessed pleasure in contem-
plating. 1t is the ideal development and dis
closure of the tender sentiment such as he
himself, lie thinks, would indulge in if the
fates were propitious; there is fitness and
harmony about it which satisfy the magma
ton. The behaviour of Mr.. Mavering and
Miss Palmer on the occasion of declaring
their affection for each other was not
of the poetical and ideal sort, nor of the fiery
and passionate description that pleases
some tropical tastes, but as set forth by the
ritiless pen of Mr.. Howells was so BADLY and
startlingly realistic and natural as to bring
the blush, not to the cheek of the bread-and-
butter young person, but to that of his elder,
who has been through precisely that same
foolish experience, instead of the prettily
romantic one which he admires, and feels like
a condemned idiot as he remembers it. 1t is
what he did do, instead of what he now sees
would hayssbeen becoming and proper to do;
and he has a sensation as if, somehow, the
unprincipled author of april Hopes" had
become acquainted with this chapter of his
history, and, by making a study of it for
public use, had basely betrayed him. 1t is
readily seen that, in view of this portrayal of
his own weaknesses, sense of injury may
follow, which manifests itself in remarks of
personal character. In similar cases personal
attentions to the author of literary work
have been considered highly complimentary,
and as indicating his possession of a strong
individuality, though in such instances the
regards bestowed were, it is true, of friendly
nature. The author of BARLEY Hubbard"
REV Mr.. Sewell" and a succession of silly
and shallow but extremely lfe-like young
women should endeavor to look upon adverse
comments in the same light, and spare the
public needless exhibitions of i'll temper
Without undue vanity. he might datter him.
self that the animosity and resentment which
he succeeds in stirring up proofs of his
own genius and the perfection of his art, and
so receive the assaults with composure and
even qualification.
Another class of critics, with less excuse for
being, are they who endeavor to instruct an
obtuse and unwilling public by pointing out
beauties of literature and art which, without
their aid, might not be discovered, and by de-
scribing the emotions proper to be exhibited
on specified occasions. The individual of this
class is much given to far-fetched interpreta
tions of popular authors. The plain and OBJ
vious meaning of any given poem is scorned
evolve different reading. The language may
be apparently clear, and capable of but one
significance, but the critic who cannot Tread
between lines" and detect deep design and
tremendous thought which careless eye had
not discerned, is merely in the freshman
stage of this species of criticism. If Shak-
speare were alive he would doubtless be
amazed at the vast number of things he has
been made to say according to the various
renderngs of certain passages, when in reality
he was originally aware of but single purpose
in his remarks, and that the which 'Ane
who runs man read" Browning is souSe
of never-ending joy to this expounder. The
simple and unsophisticated student who has
never been told that Browning is obscure and
pulling can read his works with considerable
satisfaction and apparent grasp of the senti-
ment, but presently he is crushed by the in
formation that he is all wrong and really
does not understand the poet at all. Walt
Whitman is favorite with this critic, chiefly,
it is suspected, because his writings, being of
no interest or value to any ordinary human
creature, must therefore be filed with great
possibilities for one with enthusiasts going to
waste. Art is one of the strong points of this
aesthetic expert He is, in fact, more at home
before painting than poem since. if he see
more in picture than the artist dreamed of
placing there, proof of his is
less easily detected. He is fervid in
his admiration of those works of art of which
it is the fashion to approve; he stands in rapt
ecstasy before the dingiest of "old masters"
tears suffuse his eyes at the sight of a madon
ma, not, as he.eloquently explains, because of
the mere beauty of the face, but because of
the great and wonderful thought which this
representative of motherhood conveys. In